Esmeralda Speaks Up
by Hallow Sisters On My Mind
Summary: Esmeralda Hallow has to listen to her parents and teachers always telling Ethel how amazing she is and one day she has had enough and decides to speak up. WW 2017. Oneshot.


A/N: Here is a new oneshot. I got this idea because it is clear that Esmeralda gets annoyed when Cackle and HB talk about her so much, in fact she gets annoyed when anyone does it so I wanted to write a oneshot where she says something. This one takes place when Ethel is a first year. Enjoy.

* * *

 **Esmeralda Speaks Up**

* * *

Ethel Hallow's morning had been far from fun or good. That morning she had mirrored her mother, even though she had no idea why she bothered for all the care she showed her. The girl's mother always left within the first few seconds anyway. She was therefore surprised when her mother had not left straight away but she should have known that did not necessarily mean it was because she wanted to talk to her middle child.

"Ethel another letter from Cackle's about your behaviour do you ever learn!" her mother shouted fed up of receiving letters about her middle daughter all the time.

"It wasn't even my fault this time!" Ethel replied growing annoyed. This time it actually really was not her fault she had been set up and now the real culprit had been caught but not before the letter was sent. Magic could do many things but it could not stop a letter being received that was already in the mail.

"Don't lie to me" her mother replied not believing her.

"I am not lying, I didn't steal anything" Ethel replied raising her voice.

"How did I get a daughter like you?" her mother asked her bitterly. Ethel felt her chest hurt at that statement but pretended not to care.

"How did I get a mother like you" Ethel retaliated before she ended the call and got up storming out the door and down the corridor.

The girl was upset. She knew she was no angel but this time it really was not actually her fault and she was annoyed her mother just assumed it was. The problem Ethel had was when she was angry or upset she would always do something that would get her into trouble and today was going to be a one of those days she landed herself in trouble.

* * *

Ethel went to her potions lesson upset and angry trying not to speak to anyone as she had a feeling if she did she would lose it. As she was not paying attention she ended up walking into Mildred whilst going to get some ingredients.

"Don't start Ethel" Mildred told her thinking she had done it on purpose as of course she normally did.

"Ethel Hallow I saw that, back to your potion now" Miss Hardbroom said glaring at her.

"I didn't do it on purpose" Ethel answered back.

"I do not care just go back to your cauldron" Hecate said again growing annoyed with the girl.

"Why does no-one believe that it was an accident?" Ethel asked baring her teeth. That was the second time today someone had not believed her and she was sick of it.

"Because you are prone to trouble now sit down" Miss Hardbroom said now using her most deadly, last warning voice as she looked at the girl.

Ethel glared at her as she was reminded of her fight that morning. She looked right at the women walking back to her cauldron before pushing the cauldron of the table knocking the potion to the floor.

"There I am back to it!" she shouted to the woman her anger at a all time high.

Hecate transferred to the student "Miss Cackle's office...now!" she told her as Ethel stormed out.

* * *

At breaktime Hecate went to join Ada to punish Ethel. The girl was sat there in silence not saying anything her anger now had turned to hurt and she was afraid she would cry if she opened her mouth. She was looking down so did not even notice her sister walk in. She only realised she was there when she felt her hand on her shoulder. Esmie opened her mouth to speak.

"Esmeralda don't!" Ada shouted at the older girl a little knowing she was about to defend her sister's actions. Esmeralda who always followed the rules fell silent and stood next to her sister keeping her hand on her shoulder.

"Why can you not be like Esmeralda?" Ada went on as if the eldest blonde had never entered the room. "She is the finest student that this academy has ever had and the smartest, I must say I fail to see any resemblance between you at all" Ada told Ethel harshly. But it was true she did not see any between the sisters.

"Erm actually Miss..." Esmeralda tried to butt in to tell her how Ethel was similar to her.

"Not now!" Hecate told the eldest sister fed up of the older girl trying to defend her sister all the time.

"You on the other hand seem to only have the crafty ability of being a nuisance!" Hecate went on also talking to the girl.

"Now I told you from the beginning no-one expects you to be as amazing as your sister, but I would think as a Hallow you would have a bit more common sense" Ada went on.

Esmeralda knew about the fight that morning as when she went to mirror her mother after Ethel she had talked about it and as her sister, someone who had grown up with her and was with her everyday she knew her sister a lot better than most people so when she heard her sister sniff she knew she was getting upset. Ethel was always on edge after speaking to their mother.

"Now Ethel you will never be as smart as your sister because she is basically perfect but can you please try to change your behaviour?" Ada asked talking as if she was not basically insulting the girl.

Esmeralda was used to keeping quiet. When people spoke about her she kept her mouth shut as she hated fighting with people but that did not mean she liked it. She did not like it when people spoke down to Ethel like that especially when she really was not perfect like everyone made out but as she sat there listening as people once again told her sister how amazing she was something was changing.

"Now why did you knock over the cauldron were you struggling with the potion?" Ada asked looking at the girl who was staring at the floor.

"Maybe you should get our star pupil to tutor you though I very much doubt you could keep up with her tuition" Hecate went on with the insults.

Esmeralda knew moments like this slowly ate away at her sister slowly tearing down her confidence and making her bitter, they were making her a very sad person and Esmeralda could not deal with the comments anymore especially from people who were supposed to support their pupils and raise their confidence.

"STOP" Esmeralda shouted to the two teachers who both looked over at her in shock neither remembering a time where she had shouted.

"I beg you pardon?" Hecate replied as she came to her senses.

"I said stop, just stop it" Esmeralda went on

"Stop what dear?" Ada asked not getting why she was upset.

"Talking about me like I am some flaming goddess, for god's sake I am not" Esmie went on finding now she had started she needed to get it all out.

"But Esmeralda it is the truth" Hecate replied to her star pupil.

"Oh so you have to make Ethel feel bad in the process? You are teachers why are you trying to make her hate herself?" Esmie asked them.

"We are not dear we are just telling her about your achievements" Ada replied trying to calm the girl down.

"Well it doesn't help, Ethel already gets enough of it from home from our parents, I mean you keep telling her how stupid she is" Esmeralda went on upset.

"Did we say them words?" Hecate asked raising her eyebrows.

"Oh you will never be as clever as your sister and I doubt you could keep up with her tuition," Esmeralda mocked "Actually if you bothered to look you would notice Ethel is way above average for intelligence for her age but you never tell her about her achievements only mine" Esmeralda shouted the two teachers by this point just listening too shocked at the girl yelling at them to stop her.

"I expect better from two women who have being raising kids for years, do you do this with all siblings? Make one feel awful until she breaks? I bet you loved it when everyone spoke about you like this with Agatha" Esmie went on looking at her headmistress who just stared at her.

Ethel looked at her sister half confused half grateful for what she was saying. She had always told herself Esmie liked it when people spoke about her like that so this was a shock to her too.

"I mean you wonder why she acts up so much, you make her feel awful about herself so she does something stupid to get attention" Esmeralda told them knowing her sister was not badly behaved on purpose it was because she was hurting. Ethel always got worse when she was hurting.

"This" Esmie said as she placed her free hand on her sister's other shoulder "is Ethel Hallow, and no matter what you say to her that will not change, she will still be Ethel, I do not want you to talk about me like that in front of Ethel again and you can tell that to the other teachers for that matter" Esmeralda told them as she glared at them showing a resemblance between her sister.

After she had finished her speech she spoke to Ethel her voice instantly changing back to normal as she will always be sweet to Ethel.

"Come on let's go" she said to her sister leading her out her hands still on her sisters shoulders. Ethel followed her just as confused as Ada and Hecate as to what had just happened.

* * *

After the girls had gone Ada and Hecate just stood there both still in shock as to what their star pupil had said to them, neither of them had so much as ever heard the girl raise her voice let alone rant and rage at someone.

"Who knew she had it in her? You know what people say though it is always the quiet ones" Hecate said.

"I have never seen the child that upset before, I mean I know we talk about her a lot but it is no different from what everyone does with the older daughters and plus Esmeralda is our best pupil" Ada replied.

People always thought highly of the elder child and because of this younger siblings tended to be compared to their elder sibling. It happened with Ada and Agatha and it happened with countless siblings before them, it was just normal.

"The thing is Ada I think she was serious, did you see that glare? If looks could kill..." Hecate said actually a little scared by the look the girl had given her.

"I never knew it annoyed Esmeralda, most older siblings love the praise they are given" Ada replied

"Well she is a Hallow I suppose, not the most normal family are they?" Hecate replied knowing the family was well known but not for all the right reasons.

"What do we do Hecate?" Ada asked not sure whether they should break the code in order to please the girls.

The two women spoke for another hour until Ada told Hecate to go find the sisters as Ethel still had not been punished. The two girls walked in Esmie with her arm wrapped around her sister.

* * *

"Esmeralda we listened to what you said" Ada started.

"Oh that is surprising" Esmeralda replied saracatically. She had thought the women would had brushed it off.

"We did not mean to upset you or Ethel" Ada went on ignoring her pupil's sarcastic reply.

"Are you sure about that I thought you liked bringing Ethel down, I mean you have been doing it since the second you met her" Esmeralda went on looking at her sister as she spoke.

"We do not like to bring anyone down" Hecate replied defending them both.

"She is right Esmeralda, we did not realise that it would upset you or Ethel so much, for many years people have spoken about the eldest child like we have, you know that is normal in our world" Ada told her adjusting her glasses.

"Yes I know" Esmeralda replied "But I unlike most people do not value myself as higher than my sisters because of being the first born, all I want is for you to treat Ethie like her own person and not like 'my little sister" Esmeralda told them. She had heard people before call her that 'Esmeralda's little sister' and it really annoyed her.

Ada and Hecate looked at each other then nodded at each other before replying.

"So basically you don't want us to compare you, you don't want us to see you as sisters?" Hecate asked trying to understand.

"Oh I want you to see us as sisters, but I don't want you to compare our achievements and our flaws, we might be sisters but we are two different people" Esmeralda went on explaining what she wanted.

Ada nodded "Alright I think we can manage that and I am sorry for upsetting you, we don't want to upset any of our pupils that is not our goal" Ada told her pupils. Ada knew sometimes people thought maybe that was the truth but it wasn't, they didn't want their pupils to feel bad about themselves.

"Thank you" Esmeralda told her teachers grateful they had listened.

"Oh but don't think you are free of punishment Ethel, you will still receive two detentions tomorrow night with me and will be cleaning the potions lab from top to bottom without magic" Hecate told the younger girl her with a glare.

Ethel sighed but nodded "That is fair" the blonde girl replied knowing it could have been expulsion so she was grateful.

"Good you both may go and Ethel try to keep out of trouble before I have to get you your own personal seat for the office" Ada said jokingly.

* * *

Ethel smiled and walked out with her sister who she hugged as soon as the door closed.

"Thank you for sticking up for me Esmie" Ethel told her grateful for what she had done.

"Of course you deserve to be treated as a person" Esmie said hugging her back.

Ethel smiled and the two girls walked off together arm in arm both glad their teachers had listened. Whether or not the teachers would stick to their promise, well only time could tell that but at least they knew Esmeralda Hallow would say something if it happened again.


End file.
